Some of these Laws were odd to write about because the basic premise was one I didn’t fully agree with in the first place. Law 19 about not offending is one of those. The fact that I’m gay is enough to offend many people – even the right people 🙂 The fact that I’m an old queer offends young queers. What’s a boy to do?

I don’t go out of my way to offend. Some of this piece looks at cultural appropriation. I wouldn’t write from a black p.o.v or a female p.o.v – though I do include characters of other cultures in my fiction I write almost always from male p.o.v. partly to avoid being criticized for not getting say, the female Asian character correct. Though in Lazarus Kiss – some sections are from a female p.o.v. You’ll have to read it to see if I succeeded.

The nature of ‘trigger’ warnings is tricky. I have a piece about interracial sex – do I have to give a trigger warning about that? I performed a piece about the death of my father & was later told I should have missed a trigger warning first as someone was upset when it brought back memories of their father’s death. WTF.

I’ve had people who were disappointed that a piece they liked, that touched them, was in fact not based on my actual life – they weren’t ready for poetry that wasn’t confessional. If the feelings were that authentic that’s good enough for me. The notion that poetry can be fiction doesn’t go over well anymore. Sometimes poets are story tellers. That doesn’t make them any less authentic.

I don’t think this piece, as it stand now, is finished – it covers too many variations. If I were to perform it, or include it in a chapbook I would make the issues less muddled, or spit it into two or three pieces to develop those ideas more clearly.

They said I should talk more, what a bore, with the courtesy of an itchy sore, festering, brooding, puss squeezing out the door of my mind. For one does not simply walk into Mordor! Please, please, please sir may we have some more?